WHY@Breakfast

Have you ever asked God a question and have your question answered? Perhaps, I am one of the lucky ones. During my faith journey so far, I have had numerous “encounters” with God. I would like to record a few here.  My former spiritual director said that one knows God not just through the usual senses – sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste, but also through our imagination. I agreed with him, as God seems to “speak” in unusual ways.

A few years ago, a broken friendship and several setbacks in a project left me devastated, confused, and sad. With that, feelings of unworthiness, defeat and hopelessness crept in. I decided to attend a weekday mass one evening at a nearby church. The size of the congregation that evening could be counted by our ten fingers. The priest was a foreign priest who loved singing and led the congregation into the singing of hymns. As we were singing the hymns without instrumental accompaniment, we were singing in relative pitch and the starting note of each hymn was at the mercy of the priest. I remembered clearly that the recessional hymn was “How Great Thou Art” and the priest picked a relatively high note to start with. When we got to the second part of the hymn “Then sings my soul…”, it was clear that the hymn would wander to a really high range. By the time it got to “How GREAT thou art!”, literally everyone stopped singing after “How”. The usual E-flat has been transposed to at least a third higher. I, the lone soprano, was the only one reaching out to “GREAT” to complete the sentence! At that moment, I realized God somehow had planned this funny and dreadful congregational hymn sing so that I might understand that every one of God’s creation has a purpose in life! Without those who help God’s Kingdom to be great, there would just be “art”. The meaning of art and life is made great only if we allow ourselves to be his instruments.  In this case, I was literally the only one at that moment who could sing and made it “great”. Here, God spoke in the language of music and I “heard” Him.

I had thought that if I were to follow what God has put in my heart, life would be easy and all related work would be carried out without troubles. Of course, I have read the lives of prophets were never easy, and why would I be so naïve to think that any little projects that I do at church would carry through without any glitches? In 2013, I felt compelled to organize a Lenten project with other denominational churches locally, though I had limited knowledge of other Christian faiths and how their churches operate. After I had initiated meetings with other churches and started working on the project, I realized that there were too many obstacles to overcome. Well, it didn’t really help that I accidentally visited a Protestant church on Reformation Sunday, thinking that I could observe a normal Sunday service of another denomination, in order to write a common script for the project to be presented at all churches. Again, feeling defeated, I remember questioning why God would made a poor Catholic sitting in on a sermon on Reformation Sunday. I remember doubting God’s reason for planting a seed in my heart for this seemingly impossible project. As I was driving home, I actually asked aloud, asking God to give me a sign that this is really what he wanted, a joint project with the other churches. To my surprise, when I looked in front of me, I saw that a black sedan was right in front of me. Curiously, the license plate of this car spelled “SEMINARY.” I started cracking up. What a humorous God! For a moment, I thought I was seeing things. I started counting the number of letters in “Seminary” to verify that such a license plate was even possible to exist. Now, if that’s not an answer from God, I am not sure what else that could be. Here, I “saw” Him.

I tend to ask a lot of questions. In particularly, I tend to ask God a lot of questions. I like to think of it as my way of praying. Recently, I drove to London for a meeting and I got there early. So, I decided to spend a few moments in the seemingly empty St. Peter’s Basilica. While I was on my knees, closing my eyes, quietly praying, or I should say, asking God yet another question on his purpose for me to be at the meeting, I heard a loud booming voice saying “TESTING!”  I was startled and thought how strong was God’s voice.  Of course, when I looked up, I saw that someone was actually standing at the ambo, testing the microphone. Perhaps, it was a coincidence. Perhaps, it was all in His plan. Somehow, the loud booming answer did answer my question. What more can I say? God has a good sense of humour!

So, next time, when you ask God a question, be aware of what’s happening, he might have already answered you, though somewhat unexpectedly.